After being removed from the post of the national general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), speculations are rife in Birbhum that the former Bolpur MP, Anupam Hazra may return to his former party, the Trinamul Congress. In the past few months, Mr Hazra has openly criticized the state and district committee of BJP and said that if the current situation prevails in the saffron brigade till the polls, the BJP will not be able to open its account in the state and winning 35 seats will be a distant dream.
He openly had been criticising the party leadership through his social media posts. He has even joined the protest and shared the podium organised by the TMC on Visva-Bharati University decision to omit Rabindranath Tagore’s name from the heritage plaques. After these series of posts and open criticism, the Union home ministry, under Amit Shah recently withdrew his Y-category security and it was the first serious step against him and a strong message. But still he refused to buck and continued with his posts.
And ultimately, when Shah and BJP national President J P Nadda were present in the city on Tuesday, Anupam hazra was removed from the post of the national general secretary of BJP. Anupam Hazra, a protégé of former TMC district president Anubrata Mondal contested the polls and became the MP from Bolpur. But due to differences with him he left the party in 2019 and joined the BJP.
He even contested in the Lok Sabha polls from the Jadavpur on a BJP ticket and lost to Mimi Chakraborty of the TMC in 2019. Since then he was not given any ticket though he retained his post till yesterday. Anupam Hazra has not commented yet on his removal from the post yesterday.
But speculation in Birbhum is rife that Hazra will return to the TMC fold soon. In the Poush Mela this year, there have been two stalls this year, one by the official BJP and the other by the Anupam Hazra faction. The two stalls are facing each other. The district TMC has also not commented on the issue.